They had discovered the New York, a 133-year-old wooden steamer that sank more than a century ago during a storm on Lake Huron.

"We were very excited because it was such a large vessel," said shipwreck hunter David Trotter of Canton, Mich., who waited in a 32-foot powerboat on the surface as two divers with flashlights and a camera explored 240 feet below.

The find earlier this year - and formally unveiled Tuesday - ended Trotter's two-year quest for the ship and marked the latest discovery among the thousands of vessels lost over time to the Great Lakes.

The find is expected to shed light on how ships were built during that era - a time when most shipbuilders didn't use written plans.

"We have other vessels that represent that era, but none that were as large. â?¦ It's an important look at the technology of the period," said Patrick Labadie, maritime historian for the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, Mich.

Trotter has spent 35 years hunting for ships swallowed by four of the five Great Lakes and has located more than 90 wrecks. He said the 283-foot New York was the largest wooden steamer in existence when it was built in 1879, not long before steel and iron became preferred for ship construction.

The ship had two stacks, twin boilers, a tall mast and two lifeboats that eventually would save its captain and crew. Divers discovered it resting upright, with a damaged stern and broken stacks nearby, about 40 miles north of the tip of Michigan's "thumb."

Trotter said the ship was carrying coal from Detroit to Ontario in October 1910 when it was smacked by a storm with gale-force winds and punishing waves. It began to take on water. The fires in the boilers went out.

The Mataafa, another steamer that was towing a smaller ship as it passed the New York in the opposite direction, turned around to help.

"As she turned, she nearly capsized when iron ore shifted in the vessel," Trotter said. "When she came back around, one side was 2 foot lower in the water than the other."

Trotter said the crew from the Mataafa plucked the New York's captain and 13 crew members from lifeboats. No one died.

"In the scheme of things, (the New York) ranks as one of the more important discoveries because of her place in Great Lakes history, her size, the heroics of the crew of the Mataafa saving the crew of the New York," Trotter said.

Trotter, 71, also has discovered schooners, steel freighters, dredges, barges and tugboats. The largest was the 600-foot steel freighter the Daniel J. Morrell, which he discovered in 1979 in Lake Huron.

Trotter first detected the New York in May using a side-scan sonar on his boat, the Obsession Too.

"It's very exciting to see that on the bottom, because no one else has seen that since it sank," said Marty Lutz, 55, one of the divers on Trotter's team who made the initial plunge to the New York.

Divers made about 30 trips down from July through September. At every shipwreck site, they take measurements and look for artifacts, leaving behind what they find.

"We don't have any interest it," Lutz said. "It's better to leave it on the wreck for other divers to enjoy."

The recordings divers make are put on DVDs that Trotter sells on his website and uses in presentations to students and historical groups as part of his Great Lakes Adventure Series, an educational program focused on historical adventures on the Great Lakes.

He said he finances his expensive shipwreck expeditions and has spent hours in libraries in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, reading newspaper clippings to learn about each ship. Minor health issues kept him out of the water recently, but he plans to dive again next year.

"I'm very passionate about the chance to discover and explore, to be at the right place at the right time to unwind mysteries," Trotter said.

High up on Trotter's bucket list: the Water Witch and R.G. Coburn, two ships that have eluded him for 15 years.

"Some people ask me what is the most exciting wreck I've found," he said. "I say it's the next one."